LACP with HP 5406 switch Aruba 3600

‎02-14-201108:14 AM

I have a HP 5406 and a Aruba 3600. I have been having issues with users getting slow speeds and sometimes being dropped. So after doing some simple testing my ping times are horrible to the controller and I'm plugged into the same switch as it... 30 - 50ms. Yet pings to the switch are <=1ms. So I would like to use LACP and bond all the UTP in the 3600 to the 5406. I have configured the switch to be active LACP and took the defaults with the controller and have verified in the switch that LACP is working but I am unable to ping the switch. Another side note here is that our default_vlan is 1 and the vlan for all our of aruba eq is 100. So I tried to setup the switch for 100 untagged and 1 tagged. I never seem to be able to ping the controller after I configure 2 ports for LACP (only trying two as test method). Has anyone else had this problem? I am very green to the aruba command line, and because of such most of my stuff is all done via browser.

Re: LACP with HP 5406 switch Aruba 3600

‎02-15-201101:22 PM

54 Access points 10 Air Monitors

300 user peak avg 120

we've been having connectivity issues for some times but other fires have bogged me down. Now that this has become my main focus I am finding more signs that reveal how bad this thing is. All units are hooked up via gig.. I've started a ticket with Aruba and we turned off spanning-tree.. yet still having the issue. Rebooted this morning and still dropping pings.

When I am pinging (today) I'm plugged it the same switch as the controller and pinging from my laptop to the controller itself.

Thanks for your time.

First things first:

How many access points to you have?How many users, peak have you seen on that controller?When did you first notice the problem?

When you are pinging, are you pinging from wireless users to the controller?

Re: LACP with HP 5406 switch Aruba 3600

‎02-15-201101:39 PM

Has the physical port between the Aruba controller and the HP switch negotiated proper duplex and speed? Are there any errors on the port where either the HP is connected to the Aruba controller or where that local access point is connected to an HP switch? We need to rule out a physical issue and then move up the stack.

LACP and Aruba Controller

most commonly- 2 switching devices are connected via multiple physical links, with each side treating all physical links in the "group", or "trunk" or "bundle" as one logical link for redundancy or load-balance/sharing purposes.

LACP usually refers to 802.3ad - one form of this type of connection.

Often, the difficulty is the varied use of terminology to describe the same function.

LACP 802.3ad is supported on selected Aruba controller platforms, and is documented in Chapter 26 of the ArubaOS user guide. Consult actual release notes to validate the support for your specific controller and ArubaOS software release.

The answer to this specific question depends on how LACP is configured on the HP switch, or any other switch which will attach to an Aruba controller via multiple physical connections.

Timeout and mode values must match.

Often, the difficulty is knowing whether each side is using "Active" LACP or "passive"

LACP is supported on selected Aruba controller platforms, and is documented in Chapter 26 of the ArubaOS user guide.

Active mode—the interface is in active negotiating state. LACP runs on any link that is configured to be in the active state. The port in an active mode also automatically initiates negotiations with other ports by initiating LACP packets.

Passive mode—the interface is not in an active negotiating state. LACP runs on any link that is configured in a passive state. The port in a passive mode responds to negotiations requests from other ports that are in an active state. Ports in passive state respond to LACP packets.

### Note: as soon as a port is configured with LACP, it will expect the device connected to transmit LACP PDU frames, or the switch will take the port LACP "down" !

From the WebGUI, LACP is configured under Network->Port(see example in the ArubaOS User Guide)

To attach these 3 links to any network device using LACP, ensure the devlce supports 802.3ad, is in the same mode (passive or active ) and the timeout values correspond.

Before configuring LACP, a good practice is to configure all ports on both sides to match:

trunkingVLANsspeed'duplex/autonegotiation

then attach one link on each side and ensure it works. Repeat this test with each single link. Once this works, add the LACP configuration on both sides, and attach the remaining links.

This should configure the ProCurve with "static" LACP - or "passive"

(vlan and other config not shown here)

trunk 47-48 trk1 LACP

Key is that each switch percieves ALL physical links in the LAG to be an L2 path to the same destination - that is - each L2 switch will learn MAC addresses down ALL links in the LAG

Given your description of the link behavior, it sounds as though the HP is using LACP "passive" and the ArubaOS is set to use "Active" which will not work. My suggest is for a simple LACP - use passive, and give it a try, pay attention to the MAC learning on each side, and LACP port status - the physical port may be "up" and active, but we have to pay attention to ensure LACP sees the port "up" as well.

from this it looks liek 3 input error but that is so low it shouldn't matter, yet we are still getting packet loss on pings.

Yesterday while on the phone with Aruba tech support we connected my machine directly into the controller and still got dropped pings. When we reattached my machine to the HP 5406 I started a ping of both the controller and another terminal window pinging the switch. The switch only once got a 1.xxms while all the other pings were 0.xxms. Yet the controller still bouncing all over the place.

most commonly- 2 switching devices are connected via multiple physical links, with each side treating all physical links in the "group", or "trunk" or "bundle" as one logical link for redundancy or load-balance/sharing purposes.

LACP usually refers to 802.3ad - one form of this type of connection.

Often, the difficulty is the varied use of terminology to describe the same function.

LACP 802.3ad is supported on selected Aruba controller platforms, and is documented in Chapter 26 of the ArubaOS user guide. Consult actual release notes to validate the support for your specific controller and ArubaOS software release.

The answer to this specific question depends on how LACP is configured on the HP switch, or any other switch which will attach to an Aruba controller via multiple physical connections.

Timeout and mode values must match.

Often, the difficulty is knowing whether each side is using "Active" LACP or "passive"

LACP is supported on selected Aruba controller platforms, and is documented in Chapter 26 of the ArubaOS user guide.

Active mode—the interface is in active negotiating state. LACP runs on any link that is configured to be in the active state. The port in an active mode also automatically initiates negotiations with other ports by initiating LACP packets.

Passive mode—the interface is not in an active negotiating state. LACP runs on any link that is configured in a passive state. The port in a passive mode responds to negotiations requests from other ports that are in an active state. Ports in passive state respond to LACP packets.

### Note: as soon as a port is configured with LACP, it will expect the device connected to transmit LACP PDU frames, or the switch will take the port LACP "down" !

From the WebGUI, LACP is configured under Network->Port(see example in the ArubaOS User Guide)

To attach these 3 links to any network device using LACP, ensure the devlce supports 802.3ad, is in the same mode (passive or active ) and the timeout values correspond.

Before configuring LACP, a good practice is to configure all ports on both sides to match:

trunkingVLANsspeed'duplex/autonegotiation

then attach one link on each side and ensure it works. Repeat this test with each single link. Once this works, add the LACP configuration on both sides, and attach the remaining links.

This should configure the ProCurve with "static" LACP - or "passive"

(vlan and other config not shown here)

trunk 47-48 trk1 LACP

Key is that each switch percieves ALL physical links in the LAG to be an L2 path to the same destination - that is - each L2 switch will learn MAC addresses down ALL links in the LAG

Given your description of the link behavior, it sounds as though the HP is using LACP "passive" and the ArubaOS is set to use "Active" which will not work. My suggest is for a simple LACP - use passive, and give it a try, pay attention to the MAC learning on each side, and LACP port status - the physical port may be "up" and active, but we have to pay attention to ensure LACP sees the port "up" as well.